Long Meadow Farm has hosted many dignitaries from Washington, D.C. over the years. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Long Meadow Farm may only be 55 years old, but it has lived many different lives in that time.

Back in 1970, a home was built on a 300-acre tract of land, located at 1502 River Road in Shepherdstown, by Texas Congressman Frank Ikard. The home, for a number of years afterward, was used as a weekend retreat from Washington, D.C. and a relaxing place to host dignitaries, celebrities and other politicians, including President Richard Nixon, during his visits to Camp David.

Several years later, the property was divided up into 100-acre tracts of land and put on the market.

“I found this property for my parents, back in 1978. I was coming here to this area, to visit some friends,” said Henry “Hank” Willard III.

His parents, Henry Willard II and Louise Willard, visited the property and fell in love with it immediately. They purchased Long Meadow Farm in 1979 and lived there for 40 years. After their passing, their oldest son, Henry “Hank” Willard III, inherited it.

The pool has a picturesque view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

“I was going to sell the property, but I decided not to,” he said, mentioning he inherited Long Meadow Farm in 2018. “I was apprehensive of it being too quiet here and remote, but it turns out that I love it!”

By that time, he had already moved from Washington, D.C. to the Corporation of Shepherdstown, where he had lived in a home on Princess Street for 20 years and served on the town council. He made the difficult decision to sell his home in town, in spite of his love for living in the heart of Shepherdstown.

“I really liked living in town,” he said. “Unfortunately, since I don’t live within the Corporation of Shepherdstown anymore, I can’t be as involved in town as I used to be. But I still go into town twice a day.”

When he made the decision to keep Long Meadow Farm, he knew that it would have to undergo some major changes before he and his husband, Jeffrey Greer, could comfortably live there.

“I hired an architect and redid the house. It’s basically a new house in a historic property, though the original house wasn’t that old,” he said. “It’s just been remodeled, in a big way.”

The new pool house features an entertainment space, kitchen, guest quarters and garden. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

The remodeling project began in 2020 and continued on through the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The appearance of the property was completely changed, with both cosmetic alterations and structural changes, such as the replacement of the roof, a screened-in porch being added to the back of the house, the kitchen and dining room being combined to form one dining room and an addition being built on the side of the house, to provide space for more rooms, including a kitchen and mudroom. The in-ground pool was also updated and a new, expansive pool house was built, to replace a pool house that was previously on the property.

“We’re still doing some work on it,” Hank said of the Long Meadow Farm, mentioning he and Greer moved in, in 2023.

He has also ensured the property, with its beautiful pastureland and view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, will be protected for many years to come, by donating development rights of its 100 acres to a conservation easement approved by the Jefferson County Farmland Protection Board.

Shepherdstown residents David Hammer, Esq. and Effie Kallas, Esq. drafted the bill on conservation easement, which became state law in 2000.

“The idea behind the act, was to allow the community to protect what that community values. And so, if you value aquaculture, viticulture, horticulture — whatever your local community values — you can set up your scoring system to encourage people to protect that type of land,” Hammer said. “Here, we have a mix of historic land, from Civil War campaigns and even back into the colonial days, and we have farm land and pastureland. So here, conservation easements can be granted for a property, if its protection will help the environment, preserve water resources, preserve wildlife and preserve the historic character of the community.”

According to Kallas, development rights can either be donated or purchased. Future owners of the property are only prohibited from developing the property — not from renovation or restoration of existing structures.

“It is all voluntary, in terms of nobody is made to do anything,” Kallas said, noting there are numerous financial benefits to property owners, who make a development rights donation. “There is now quite a lot of land in the Eastern Panhandle that is protected by conservation easements. Currently, 7,000 acres of land in Jefferson County and 12,000 acres of land in Berkeley County are protected from development.”